by Kyle Sprunger

Created on: August 04, 2008

Since Barack Obama became the presumptive Democratic nominee, all the politic chatter is about whom he would tap as his running mate. Obama already is having a historic bid for president, besides being the first African-American to run on a major party ticket, he has also turned out voters in record numbers. So what type of person is Barack Obama looking for in his choice of a running mate: a "plain white guy". Obama doesn't need to pick a woman at all, he already has enough diversity by being an African-American. He can't to be to diverse, so he has to stick with a white guy.

Speculation over Hillary has pretty much well died done over the last several weeks. Obama will not choose a woman other than Hillary, even though there has been speculation about Kansas Governor, Kathleen Sebelius. She is a popular governor of a dominant Republican state, but how would Hillary's supporters react? They were been outraged! Well if enough of Hillary's supporters would write her name in on Election Day, they could hurt Obama's chances, but that is highly unlikely.
When it comes to "plain white guys", Obama has plenty to choose from. I honestly think that Obama will choose Virginia Governor Tim Kaine for 13 little reasons. The 13 reasons are electoral votes. Kaine is a very popular governor, and he is fairly new to the national spotlight, which could benefit and hurt him. By choosing Kaine, Obama is pretty much has Virginia in his win column, unless McCain taps Cantor. That could be interesting, a fight for the presidency right in Virginia.
If Obama doesn't choose Kaine, he has Evan Bayh and Joe Biden to pick too. Bayh could bring Indiana into Obama's win column, but very unlikely due to the fact that Indiana has went Republican since LBJ was elected President. But again, Bayh was a very popular governor of Indiana and won by landslides in his recent Senate race. His is not too old or too young, being at the ripe age of 52.
Joe Biden would be an interesting Vice Presidential choice, due to the fact that old enough to Obama's father. Biden does bring to the table, foreign policy and national security credentials, which is one of Obama's major weaknesses. Plus Biden contradicts Obama's message of "Change", since he has been a Senator from Delaware since 1973.
A longshot for Obama would be Republican Chuck Hagel. Hagel did make a travel with Obama and Jack Reed to Iraq and Afghanistan in July. If Obama choose Hagel, it would send Obama's base into a fury. True Obama has been sort of shying away from his liberal base in the past few weeks.
Time will tell on who Obama chooses for his running mate, but it is always fun to speculate!

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